Sheer luck is an underestimated commodity in football. On a day when Brighton enjoyed loads of the stuff and Newcastle almost none, a PhD student could have used these 102 minutes on Tyneside as the basis for a thesis on the vagaries of the game’s fluctuating fortunes.
Yet if favourable tailwinds played a significant part in propelling Fabian Hürzeler’s side into fifth place, it would be wrong not to emphasise the influential roles of the outstanding Danny Welbeck and Brighton’s excellent goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen, and the resilience and poise of their teammates.
“We have to be honest,” said Hürzeler. “In the end I wouldn’t say it was a deserved win but my team suffered and defended together. Sometimes that’s football. In the first half Newcastle had some big chances and great intensity. We didn’t deserve to score when we did but it was a great moment of individual quality from Danny Welbeck and then we showed a great reaction in the second half.”
Brighton ended that period without Welbeck following their leading scorer’s removal on a stretcher with an oxygen mask clasped to his face after he collapsed clutching his lower back in the wake of a routine aerial challenge with Fabian Schär.
“I can’t give you any updates until Danny has a scan,” said Hürzeler who, at 31, is two year’s Welbeck’s junior. “I think he got the opponent’s knee in his back. Hopefully it’s not that bad but we can’t be sure. Danny has a big talent but he’s not only a great footballer but a great teammate and a role model for the young players. I’m very pleased with him.”
On a day when Alexander Isak had mislaid his shooting boots, Eddie Howe had little option but to turn sanguine. “Very frustrating,” said Newcastle’s manager, who saw his players fail to convert any of 21 attempts on goal. “The first half was the best we’ve played this season but we made one mistake and Brighton scored from their first attack. We had some really good moments and looked creative but it wasn’t to be.”
To say that Welbeck’s 35th-minute goal arrived against the run of play would be a considerable understatement. Until then, Brighton had been largely kettled in their own half as Newcastle suffocated their attempts to play out from the back.
With Isak having missed a couple of promising chances and Hürzeler seemingly resistant to ripping up his tactical blueprint and replacing it with something more pragmatic, it appeared only a matter of time before Newcastle scored.
Happily for Brighton, Welbeck had other ideas. After chesting down a long ball from Lewis Dunk, the former England striker proceeded to destabilise Newcastle’s defence courtesy of an adroit one-two with Georginio Rutter before outmuscling Tino Livramento and slipping a well-calibrated finish beyond Nick Pope’s reach. It was visitors’ first shot of the afternoon and Welbeck’s fifth goal in eight league games.
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Hitherto all intelligent pressing, impressive possession retention and slick passing, Howe’s players had received a kick in the teeth after 45 minutes lacking only a goal.
Their response to falling behind proved less convincing, suggesting the team’s struggles to score from open play might be turning into a psychological problem. As the crowd’s frustration mounted and Brighton’s switch to a more counterattacking strategy started paying dividends, Howe began flicking tactical switches.
Harvey Barnes and Joe Willock replaced Jacob Murphy and Sandro Tonali but off, too, went Welbeck.
His teammates held on for what had felt like a highly unlikely victory, perhaps best summarised by the events of the 74th minute when Anthony Gordon met Schär’s fabulous through ball but, with only Verbruggen to beat, snatched at a glorious chance.
